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Friday, June 15, 2007
DFA fails to recover body of beheaded Pinoy
By Marna H. Dagumboy
GUAGUA, Pampanga -- Relatives of beheaded overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Reynaldo Cortez on Thursday confirmed that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) did not succeed in recovering his remains.
Cortez was buried in Saudi Arabia after he was beheaded on Wednesday. Saudi Arabian laws require that beheaded convicts be buried before sundown.
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Melody, wife of Cortez, said she received a phone call from the DFA at 3:30 p.m. Thursday after her husband was executed. The Filipino worker served almost five years in prison and suffered 1,000 lashes.
She said her husband's execution was a surprise as nobody was informed.
On May 10, Melody said her husband called their daughter and told her to seek assistance from the National Government on the murder case filed against him in Saudi Arabia.
Cortez was charged in 2002 with the murder of a Pakistani taxi driver who tried to rape him.
Despite the Philippine Embassy's negotiations for the payment of blood money, the family of Cortez's victim rejected the offer of 100,000 Saudi riyals and insisted that the death sentence by beheading be carried out.
The victim's family, under Saudi Arabian laws, has the option of pardoning the killer and accepting blood money, in which the case of death sentence can be annulled.
Cortez, a welder at the Al-Allah Car Workshop in Riyadh, was sentenced to death by the Riyadh high court on May 30, 2005.
During hearings in Riyadh, Cortez said he killed the Pakistani taxi driver to defend himself from rape.
Guagua Mayor Ric Rivera expressed sadness over the death of Cortez. He has extended assistance to Cortez's family who hails from Barangay San Pablo in Guagua. (Sun.Star Pampanga/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Davao. (June 15, 2007 issue)
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